Herd

Mark Earls is one of the leading thinkers about brands, marketing and mass behaviour.He has held senior positions in some of the largest and most influential communications companies in the world – his last job was as chair of Ogilvy's Global Planning Council, prior to which he was Planning Director at the revolutionary St. Luke's Communications in London.His written work has regularly won awards from his peers and is considered by many to be amongst the most influential being written about consumer and mass behaviour today. His first book, Welcome to the Creative Age, was widely read and discussed and has been translated into several languages. HERD has received recognition and praise in a number of fields and Mark has travelled extensively to talk about HERD with audiences drawn from both the business and the public sector.Mark lives in North London but would rather be watching cricket or fishing, ideally somewhere sunny.

"The PM's advisers would do well to consult the work of Mark Earls, whose book, Herd, explores the extent to which 'the physics of mass behaviour' are governed by imitation more often than ideological purpose." (Matthew D'Ancona, Evening Standard)"As the riots spread throughout London and the rest of the country, I grabbed for my edition of Herd to see what it held to explain behaviour such as this. Author Mark Earls talks about how people's behaviour can be influenced by a 'system that is primed.'" (Research)"Earls has a beguiling and an irrepressible intellectual curiosity, so the book becomes a very enjoyable and allusive compendium...." (The Guardian, March 2007)"Bold in its conception and engaging in execution, offers the most radical new theory of consumer behaviour in a generation" (Gulf Business, March 2007)"...brain-stretching stuff, looking at economic patterns, investment history and behavioural psychology to help the reader become a shrewder investigator." (Securities and Investment Review, March 2007)"It will change the way you think about marketing. It will also change the way you think about yourself." (Marketing Direct, November 2007)

• Dedication vAbout the Author xviForeword by Russell Davies xviiNotes on Paperback edition xxiIntroduction 1At the 'cellotaph' 1Ghostbikes 4So how are we to explain this kind of thing? 4Bigger boys made me do it 5A book about mass behaviour 7Mass behaviour is hard to change 7Bad theory, bad plan. Better theory? Better plan? 9Old news? 10I and the other 10Market research and me 11We're all individuals – I'm not 12Understanding the how not just the what? 13What the book will cover 14How to use this book 17Part One: A 'We-Species' with an illusion of 'I'1: The Super-Social Ape 21Tea and kindness 23Advertising works 24Even more advertising works 25We want to be together 26Say what you see 28A we-species 29Are we stardust? 30The successful ape 31Homo or Pan? 32When I grow up 33Primates are social 34Why the naked ape? 35Sexuality 36The infant ape 36So why naked then? 39The brain of a social ape par excellence 39How others shape us 41How we make each other unhappy 42The social brain 43The sound of the crowd 44The empathetic ape 45Language and stroking 46The loneliness of autism 47Collaboration: the keys to the kingdom 50Self-interest and collaboration 51Game on 51Game over and over 52Collaboration across the nation? 53Learning from each other? 54How collaboration built the world 55Shirts – the work of many hands 56Summary of this chapter 57Questions to ponder 57Questions and issues for marketers 582: The Illusion of 'I' 59Pepper's ghost 62What does Pepper's ghost tell us? 63I woke up this morning . . . 64What it is – oh, I forgot 65Eternal sunshine and spotless minds 66False memories 66Monkey see 68Lazy minds 69Don't think too hard 71Retelling the story 72The big when 73The illusion of consciousness 75Depression and the distorted self 78Treatments 79Summary of this chapter 81Issues arising 82Questions and implications for marketers 823: 'I' vs. 'Us' 85Yes we can 87Travelling for real 89Beware Greeks 91Ubuntu 92Peace and reconciliation 93Wo die Zitronen blühn 95Studying consumer tribal behaviour 97Beyond marketing 97Far from the madding crowds 98The politics of 'I' 100The collective mind 100No such thing as society 102Is the rest of the world so wrong? 102'I' ideology 103How social psychology got individualized 104'I' research 105Expert opinion 106Heroes and villains, and other individuals 108Unhappy feet? 108The curious tale of curious George 109What this chapter has demonstrated 110Some questions 111Issues for marketers arising from this chapter 111Part Two: The Seven Principles of Herd Marketing4: Key Principle No. 1: Interaction 115At the market 117At the urinal 118In the lecture theatre 121Complexity vs. complicated 122Complexity as a way of seeing the world 123Interactive animals 124Interactive humans 125Back to the football 126Learning from the Mexican wave 127At the office 128Meanwhile, somewhere in Aberdeen 129Summary so far 130Every day, every day, in every way . . . 130Crime and punishment 132New York, New York 133The physics of crime 135More crime, less physics 136Crims, saints and floaters 137Fighting on the beaches (and in the suburbs) 139The facts 139Analysis 141What to do about such riots 143Markets and interaction 143Behavioural markets 145The challenge for market research 146Issues arising 147Implications and questions for marketing and business 1475: Key Principle No. 2: Influence 151Saturday night's all right 153Faces in the crowd 1541-2-3-4 . . . 155Brainwashing 156Brainwashing and conformity 156Parallel lines 157Fear and needles 158Hands together, please 159The placebo effect 160What do you do to me? 161Stupid boy 162Marky Mark is not Influential 163Why one-to-one is wrong 164Charidee, my friends 165Relation-canoes 165Relationships redux 166Channel tunnel vision 167From you to me to me and everyone I know 168Getting over yourself 169More influence 170The Milgram experiment 171Let the tapes roll 172How good people do bad things 173Born unequal? 175Naturally influential? 176Social influencers 178Connectedness 179Meet Lois 180Influence and influencers 181Researching influence 181Learning from Decision Watch 182The Influenced not the Influencer 184What this chapter has shown 186Some questions for marketing 1876: Key Principle No. 3: Us-Talk 189Don't believe the hype 191Children of the revolution 192So why is the record industry so scared? 193Scary Mary 195What can we learn from the Arctic Monkeys' success? 196Boom time for WoM Marketing 196What does Marketing (really) know about WoM? 197WoM Fact 1. Word of mouth is seen by consumers to be more important than other influences on individual purchases 198WoM Fact 2. Word of mouth is seen to be getting more and more important over time 199WoM Fact 3. Word of mouth seems to operate in both B2B and B2C 201WoM Fact 4. Word of mouth is a global – and not just a North American – phenomenon 202Astroturfing 204I WoM Redux 207Grooming & feeling good 208Talk and grooming 209More grooming talk 209How bad science changed the mind of a nation 210Real impacts 214What can we learn from the MMR case? 214The conversation has already started 215Us-talk again 217It's not all (or even mostly) about you! 218Paying for it 219Talk in the real world 219Talking about telly 220That one number again 221Don't Matter What You Say: the One Number Still Matters 224What this chapter has shown 224What's next? 225Questions for marketing 2257: Key Principle No. 4: Just Believe 227Disappointed of Des Moines (or Dunstable)? 229Meaning in a world of oversupply 230Three principles explained 231Goodnight Vienna 232I believe 233Cardigan Bay's third biggest clothing company 234Outdoor threads 235Nice to have? 235Think differently 236The journey (home) 238Jamie's dinners 239Being Naked 242Anomalous Thinking 243Back to the future 245Enron and everything after 247A challenge – does belief pay? 247So what does the study show? 248You are not alone 249Free and legal 250A is for . . . 252Before we go 2531. Be who you are 2542. What do you believe in? Find it and live it! 2543. Act like you mean it (and don't act like you don't . . .) 256Summary: taking a stand 257Some questions arising for marketing 2588: Key Principle No. 5: (Re-)Light the Fire 259Keep the home fires burning 261The fire inside 262Easier to extinguish than light 264The misfits 266Relighting my fire 267The power of dreams 267Dream a little dream 269Vile bodies 270A familiar situation 271Girl talk 272The danger of missions 273You too can look like this 273More belief 276'T ain't what you say 277The fire inside – summary so far 279Where next? 280How to work out what to do? 281More behaviour thinking 282Show, don't tell 282Interlude: Beyond Petroleum 284Belief in a cynical age 287Cynics and dogs 288Spotting cheaters 290Conclusions 291Questions for marketers 2919: Key Principle No. 6: Co-Creativity 293Unlikely popstars vol. 103 295Charidee, my friends 296Number one and everything after 297So what does the 'Amarillo' syndrome teach us? 299Originality and creativity 300(Value) chain of fools? 301Is this new news? 303Hi-tech co-creativity 304Welcome to SIM City 305Rewriting history (together?) 306Galileo, Newton and Einstein 307Another 'pencil squeezer'? 309Co-creativity – summary so far 309Meetings, bloody meetings 310Kick-off 312At the theatre 313Co-creative marketing attempts to change mass behaviour 314I saw this and I thought of you 315Using co-creativity to change internal audience mass behaviour 317The Hawthorne effect and after 318Co-creative innovation 319Two types of co-creative networks 320The Ocean's 11 dream team 321Co-creativity and market research (1) 322Co-creativity and market research (2) 323Some ideas that co-creativity challenges 323Some questions for marketing 32410: Key Principle No. 7: Letting Go 325What a score! 327The limits of my powers 329The loneliness of the touchline 330What Carwyn did and didn't do 331The loneliness of the manager 332The company as machine 332Reducing the human element 333Children of the lesser god 334Another point of view 335Human remains 336Interaction businesses 337A different kind of job 337Back to the drawing board? 340So what can you do? 342More human physics 342Crisis, what crisis? 343Let them all talk 344Talk with the talkers 347What do they talk of? 348And finally . . . 348As inside, so outside 349The end of management 349Some questions for marketing 350Part Three: Making Sense of the Herd11: Conclusions 355Life, the universe and giant aquatic reptiles 357Seeing things differently 358Conclusion 1: Our species is first and foremost a social one 359Implication 1: Stop thinking and talking with words that conjure the 'I' perspective 360Conclusion 2: Individuals are unreliable (if not largely irrelevant) witnesses 360Implication 2: Don't ask 360Conclusion 3: Interaction is everything; interaction is the 'big how' 361Implication 3: Understand the how-mechanic and use it 361Conclusion 4: C2C, not B2C 361Implication 4: Get the system to work for you 362Conclusion 5: MVC vs. MIC? 362Implication 5: Rethink targeting 362Conclusion 6: Communication is not about sending information 363Implication 6: Communication and action 363Conclusion 7: What people say is just the most visible influence 364Implication 7: Make peer-to-peer interaction the real goal of all marketing (and not just WoM) 364Conclusion 8: Be more interesting 365Implication 8: Find your Purpose-Idea and live it 365Conclusion 9: Co-create 365Implication 9: Learn to be a great co-creator 366Conclusion 10: Letting go 366Implication 10: Rethink 'management' 366Postscript to the Paperback edition 369And it's goodnight from him . . . 369Endnotes 371Index 385